Stefan ValperzDer Selbstbelieferungsvorbehalt

About this book deutschenglish

The fast pace of today’s markets confronts commerce with great challenges. The merchant who is not supplied by his deliverer and who is therefore unable to provide his purchaser with the goods sold is liable to damages without fault according to § 276 I S. 1 BGB. An exit out of this predicament is the so-called “self-supply reservation clause” (German: Selbstbelieferungsvorbehalt). This is a clause that frees a vendor who has not been supplied by his provider from his duty to deliver to his purchaser and to be held liable for damages. The wording that has established itself is “correct and timely supply reserved” (German: „richtige und rechtzeitige Selbstbelieferung vorbehalten“).

The author has set to himself the goal to investigate the instrument of the self-supply reservation clause fundamentally and detailed. He shows the origins of the clause in times of scarcity and shortness of supplies and investigates the influence of Hamburg’s arbitral courts and business conditions. He demonstrates the necessity of the clause due to the liability without fault for the risk of provision of § 276 I S. 1 BGB and names the requirements under which a vendor can refer to an agreed self-supply reservation clause and the consequences of this. It is clarified that the clause can also function as a caveat emptor and which legal nature it has. At last the validity of the self-supply reservation clause in business conditions is investigated and a clause is developed that can resist the control of clauses according to §§ 305 ff. BGB in case of a use versus consumers.